Chapter 61

chapter 61 ever since roan's attack on stonewall there were things he’d wanted to test, there just never seemed to be the time, but after connecting with thera again as she used her magic he decided not to put it off any longer. no matter how low the chance of success he wouldn’t be satisfied unless he tried. he grabbed her by the hand and started to connect with her, trying to feel more than just her mind or her mana, but something deeper. he wanted to connect to her skills. when they were fighting roan before and glob just now he felt her power as she used it, and it let him know what to look for. his brow creased in concentration as he tried to force his mind to plunge even further, before he came across what he was looking for and latched onto it with all he had. there was no resistance and his confidence soared. this was it, this was what he’d been dreaming of since coming to the world. and if he could feel it he was sure he could use it. he stretched his arm out in front of him, willing his mana to bend to his desire and form an earth bullet in front of him. but nothing happened. he let out a sigh and felt himself shrink. of course it wouldn’t work. that would have been way too convenient if he could overcome his inability to use magic by connecting with someone. everyone else looked on, unsure of what should be happening. only thera understood what he had attempted by hearing his thoughts through the connection, and could feel the disappointment rolling off of him. “try not to let it get to you.” she told him. “you don’t need magic to be a fantastic craftsman.” “i know, but it sure helps.” he wasn’t even sure if there was any point in testing his other two ideas, but for the sake of trying everything he carried on with lower spirits. “hey abrus, mind making me a copper armband? something that could cover my forearm?” “a simple enough request.” with a small wave of his hand the earth spirit materialized the copper around his arm. it wasn’t pretty, with no real thought being put into its look, but it would work well enough for his purposes. he still had his hold on her earth magic, and with little hope tried to enchant with it. the very world felt like it changed when he felt it start to work. he didn’t have much knowledge on how to enchant with spells, since he didn’t think it was something he would ever do, he had felt like there was no real point in taking the time to learn, and now that felt like an overwhelming mistake. rather than try and shape the mana to produce a specific spell effect, he had no choice but to lay the entire skill onto the armband. to everyone but him and thera it looked like he’d worked up a sweat after staring intensely at the armband for around 15 minutes. but thera, who could feel his concentration and excitement looked at him in astonishment. he ignored his level up, it was only a distraction from seeing if he’d succeeded, and let go of her hand while raising his own. “now to see if it actually works.” “think you could get me more people to make resistance braces for? the sooner i get either my enchanting or connect up, the sooner i can see how it will affect things.” after dinner and sleeping, ben awoke in myriads divine realm with a smile still plastered on his face. “myriad, buddy! i didn’t hear from you today. please tell me you caught sight of the news.” “i did, things are looking good i think.” his god didn’t sound like he was giving ben his full attention as he spoke, a fact ben was quick to pick up on. “what’s up? you seem distracted, i figured you’d be doing your glowing disco ball of excitement routine you do when something good happens.” “this is excellent news, something about it just seems off is all, it’s eating at my mind a little.” "what could be off? the amount i can enchant basically became unlimited! this is a huge selling point! i’m sure we’ll be able to snag some enchanters with this for sure!" "it is, it's great. it’s just...." "just what?" "there are already a group of skills very similar to it, lender, learner, teacher, and borrower. i won't bore you with the details but the short of it is that they all allow for sharing skills to an extent too, without the restriction of it only being able to be used for enchanting. while i can see how my own characteristics could lead to this, i just find it odd that it's growing with the restrictions it is. the influence of you and the world should be causing it to grow in more interesting ways." “what do you mean restrictions? sure not being able to use the skill when connected isn’t great, but it also has the whole mindreading aspect as a benefit.” “true, but you had to work much longer to use it as well right? your normal enchanting speed is significantly faster. not to mention i don’t think there are many with blessed enchanting. i would bet that any enchanter without the blessed version of the skill would struggle much more. all of this makes it significantly weaker than the other skills i mentioned, which just seems unusual. as it stands it’s only grown into a weaker borrower and mindreading.” "so what do you think is happening then?" "i think you should try and get another level or two out of it and we'll see from there."